Product Description

In its first year, THE BEST AMERICAN RECIPES established itself as a runaway success and a newsmaker in the food world and was hailed as one of the top cookbooks by the NEW YORK TIMES, the BOSTON GLOBE, HARPER'S BAZAAR, and many other major publications. For this volume, editors Fran McCullough and Suzanne Hamlin have assembled an even larger collection of the year's best recipes from an even wider array of sources. The result is a dazzlingly diverse collection. There are weekday dinners: a skillet supper that no family cook should be without, a huge vegetarian feast in a single bowl, a winter salad that won the hearts of a top food magazine's editors. There are recipes to satisfy our latest cultural cravings: the lamb shanks that knowledgeable New Yorkers consider the best, an easy Indonesian chicken that Lauren Bacall reportedly adores, a slow-roasted salmon from the country's most fashionable Irish chef. There are great grilling recipes, cutting-edge dishes, best-ever holiday classics, and for dessert, everything from simple cookies to a show-stopping chocolate cake.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #289037 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Amazon.com
Cheers for Fran McCullough and Suzanne Hamlin, editors of The Best American Recipes 2000. As with previous Best editions, they've culled a truly choice collection from a year's worth of eligible recipes from books, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet. It's an all-occasion crop ranging from the unabashedly down-home Beer Can Chicken to chef Thomas Keller's cheese strips molded in an egg carton. What makes the difference in projects such as this is the quality of editorial taste and the compilers' commitment to recipe practicality. In both these matters McCullough and Hamlin excel. "Most of all," the editors write, "we love smart recipes that maximize flavor," and these they've provided in satisfying abundance.

Ranging from starters and breads to desserts and drinks, the recipes cover the classic to the exotic-but-definitely-worth-trying varieties. Examples from the repertoire include Mexican Pistachio Soup, Puffy Maine Pancakes, and Indonesian Ginger Chicken. There are also dishes, such as Texas Lemon Bomb (coiffed with meringue swirls), that are simply, though never frivolously, fun. With a "Year in Food" rundown (food comeback of the year: the egg), tips, cooking notes, and serving suggestions, The Best American Recipes 2000 makes an important culinary bookshelf addition while providing true cooking and eating enjoyment. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly
The second volume in this new series starts out with a snappy list of the year's trends in food that names the potato "Vegetable of the Year" and slow roasting the hottest technique. Recipes, drawn from a variety of sources, are often so simple that it's a surprise to see them here (e.g., Garlicky Baked Chicken from Sara Moulton's Web site is just thighs or breasts coated with bread crumbs and cheese, then baked to a crisp). And the editors clearly have never met a gimmick they didn't like: they coo over Beer Can Chicken (the diner rests the chicken on the can) and delight in Grilled Duck in a Jar (the duck is marinated in the jar, so that it is "ready to be admired by those who will soon enjoy it"). Recipes with an ethnic bent, such as Tunisian Chickpea Stew and Kashmiri-Style Leg of Lamb, are among the most appealing. Each recipe credits the chef and the source and is accompanied by notes and serving suggestions, such as pairing the Twelve-Hour Roast Pork from Suzanne Somers' Get Skinny on Fabulous Food with Creamy Mashed Potatoes from Gourmet. this book is a fun read and will most likely sell well, but it is not the definitive source its editors envision it to be. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"If Mr. Ducasse wants to get a handle on what is really happening in this country,
foodwise, he should take a look at The Best American Recipes 2000,
edited by Fran McCullough and Suzanne Hamlin. The range should be eye-opening, as well as the ingenuity: from Steven Raichlen's version of beer-can chicken to dessert chef Francois Payards rhubarb soup."

Customer Reviews

Best Recipes for Jan 2002 - Oct 2002 ONLY!
I own The Best American Recipes 1999 & 2000. The recipes I have tried from those books are very good (Pan Roasted Carrots & Creamed Scallions). While I had already made (and loved) some of the other recipes listed from several books in the series (because I have the cookbooks they were pulling them from), I have a huge issue with the newer publication of this seemingly successful book.

How can a book claim to have the best recipes from all the varying resources for 2002 AND 2003... when it was published in October 2002?! I am noticing this in Jan of 2003, while we still have an entire year of new recipes yet to be released... and this book will clearly not have any of them.

Since I cannot give this 2.5 stars (5 for the recipes and 0 for the misleading title), I opted for 3 because despite the title, it's a good book.

Great Techniques -- Great Recipes
I am one of those cooks that has never had any formal training (beyond my mother/grandmother) -- so I appreciate the teaching and conversation beyond the recipe. For example, the book details homemade chicken soup and the technique for making an excellent base. This lets me experiment and expand on the ingredients that I like -- so that I can build my "perfect" recipe.

The recipes have all turned out well and at the same time, have taught me a lot about cooking. This is an excellent book for an aspiring home cook.

Great recipes
Now that I have gone through this cookbook, I need to go back and find the similar recipe books McCullough has done for the last four years. If this one is any indication, I predict that I will think I died and went to heaven.

I cannot wait to try some of the recipes that I earmarked in this book--including some unusual soups, the Garlicky Sun-Dried Tomato Spread (looks good AND easy!), a salad made with prosciutto and sugar snap peas, an Italian beef stew, and more desserts than I have any right to want to taste!

I especially liked the conversational tone of the book, the way the recipes are introduced and the tips that accompany them. It's kind of quirky, and I liked that!